Visitors on e-bikes will be charged a $5 fee to enter the scenic area starting in May, which is the same fee motorcycle riders pay, the U.S. Forest Service said in a news release.

The number of people using e-bikes on Maroon Creek Road has “skyrocketed,” federal officials said, with more than 8,000 e-bikes entering the area last year, compared to 700 motorcycles.

People riding motorcycles, e-bikes and bicycles do not need a reservation to enter Maroon Bells, and most of the visitors using e-bikes rented them specifically to visit the scenic area, the forest service said.

E-bikes are already considered motorized vehicles under Forest Service policy. Nonmotorized bicycles can still access the scenic area for free.

More than 200,000 people visit Maroon Bells between mid-May and the end of October, most on a shuttle that costs $16 per person. The road to access Maroon Bells opens May 15, and reservations for parking and the shuttle can be made online.

Snowmass Falls Ranch, the largest inholding in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness and the gateway to some of the area’s most coveted recreation and wildlife habitat, was acquired in a historic purchase by Pitkin County, in partnership with The Wilderness Land Trust, to protect it from development.

The 650-acre property sits just outside Snowmass Village, at the foot of the Elk Range, with a majority of the property within the boundaries of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

Originally established by Kate Lindvig, known as the “Cattle Queen of Snowmass,” during the original settlement of Aspen, the property was purchased by Pitkin County for $34 million from the previous landowners earlier this year using Open Space Program funds.

“This was a historic purchase for us,” said Dale Will, Acquisition and Special Projects director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. “That number is the largest amount we have ever spent on anything … but the property was a holy grail too. I’ve been working for Open Space for 26 years, and it had been weighing heavily on my mind the whole time as a property that needed to be protected.”

Will noted that purchasing the property, which was originally listed at $50 million in 2021 with no conservation easements or deed restrictions, was possible thanks to recently sold bonds and a $10 million loan from the Great Outdoors Colorado trust fund.

Since the purchase, Pitkin County and WLT have been working with the White River National Forest as the agency applies for Land and Water Conservation Funds to transfer property to public ownership as a National Forest, according to WLT Director of Marketing & Communications Margosia Jadkowski.

Read the full story from our partner at .

Having finished the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado and California’s Sierra Range — including Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Lower 48 states at 14,500 feet — the next stop for the renowned Spanish endurance athlete is Mount Shasta in northern California, near the Oregon border. His “States of Elevation” quest will finish on Washington’s Mount Rainier.

Jornet began the trip on Sept. 3 with an ascent of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. He climbed 56 Colorado fourteener summits in 16 days, traveling between peaks by foot or bicycle. According to a news release sent by his public relations team, he covered 1,207 miles in Colorado, 738 on bike and 469 on foot, with 256,000 feet of climbing. He averaged four and a half hours of sleep per night.

“The mountains are stunning, and the wilderness is truly special,” Jornet said of Colorado in a statement for the news release. “During the first two weeks, the weather was really tough, which added an extra layer of challenge. The first week I felt terrible — probably because of the jet lag and the altitude — but then I started to feel better and better, even if the weather kept being difficult.

“In those first two weeks, we only had three days of sun, which made things harder,” he added. “Colorado, it����ap the biggest section of the project, with the most summits and some of the hardest navigation, so it was very exciting.”

His route in Colorado included:

• The so-called “LA Freeway,” a highly technical 35-mile segment on the Continental Divide from Longs Peak south to the Arapaho Peaks, 12 miles northwest of Nederland
• “The Elk Traverse,” another extremely technical section that included seven fourteeners in the Aspen area, including the Maroon Bells
• “Nolan’s 14,” a traverse linking 14 fourteeners in the Sawatch Range from Mount Massive near Leadville to Mount Shavano
• The Crestone Group, consisting of four fourteeners in the Sangre de Cristo Range
• Thirteen peaks in the San Juan Range, including Uncompahgre and Mount Sneffels

The hiker injured a knee while on the Crater Lake Trail between Maroon Lake and Crater Lake, a popular hike that starts about 30 minutes from downtown Aspen, according to a from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

The out-and-back trail spans about two miles in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area.

Sheriff’s officials said the injured hiker texted the Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center via satellite at 12:12 p.m. Tuesday. Dispatchers then alerted .

The first rescuers arrived at the trail in 50 minutes to start stabilizing the injured hiker, sheriff’s officials said.�� More volunteers arrived shortly after and carried the hiker out to a waiting ambulance.

All 19 rescue personnel were out of the field by 2:45 p.m., according to the release.

Mountain Rescue Aspen and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office said people should “,” which includes knowing their limits, picking the right trail, having an emergency plan and and supplies.

The climber, who has not been publicly identified, fell and broke a leg in steep and unstable terrain less than 200 feet from the mountain’s 14,022-foot summit, according to a from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

and the sheriff’s office responded to an emergency SOS sent by the climber at about 9:15 a.m. Sunday, sheriff’s officials said.

The climber used a two-way satellite messaging device to communicate with rescue teams, according to the news release.

“Mountain Rescue Aspen and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind all adventurers that traveling with a partner and having the ability to communicate (while not relying on cellular coverage) in the mountains can help expedite a rescue in case of emergency,” officials stated in the news release.Mountain Rescue Aspen officials activated a team, which helped arrange a Colorado National Guard to rescue the climber, sheriff’s officials said.

An off-duty member of New Mexico-based was also climbing in the area and helped the injured climber until Colorado rescuers arrived, sheriff’s officials said.

The injured climber was successfully hoisted off the mountain just before 1 p.m. Sunday and flown to a nearby airport, where an ambulance was waiting to take the climber to the hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.

All 22 members of the Mountain Rescue Aspen team were out of the field by 4:30 p.m. Sunday, officials said.

Mountain Rescue Aspen sent 14 volunteers to locate the climber after the Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center received a call about the incident, which occurred around 10 a.m. Wednesday at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet, according to a press release.

Authorities said the climber, whose name and gender were not made public, had been climbing solo and that the fall had been witnessed by another climber, who was able to call for help on a cell phone. The climber sustained multiple injuries in the fall, the press release said.

Mountain Rescue Aspen used a hoist rescue on the 14,163-foot-tall peak and flew the victim to Aspen Pitkin County Airport, where an ambulance took the climber to Aspen Valley Health. The injured climber was removed from the mountain at 12:22 p.m. The climber’s condition upon arrival at the hospital is not clear.

All rescue personnel were out of the field by 2:41 pm.

The hikers had summited the 14,130-foot mountain earlier that day, but got stuck on their way back when they tried to take a shorter route down the mountain’s north face, according to a from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.

“There is not an alternate route down the north face of Capitol Peak,” sheriff’s officials stated in the news release. “If there was a safe shortcut, it would be the standard route.”

Capitol Peak in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness west of Aspen has numerous drop-offs and loose, crumbling rock, according to the sheriff’s office.

Five climbers died on the peak in 2017 alone, sheriff’s officials said.

14ers.com, a website dedicated to assessing all of Colorado’s fourteeners, as a four out of five. is reserved solely for rock climbing routes with no hiking.

“This is the most difficult of the standard 14er routes,” the peak’s entry states. “It’s long, tedious and dangerous. … Climbers have died here.”

Sheriff’s officials said the North Carolina hikers called for help at about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday.

Neither of the hikers was injured, but sheriff’s officials told them to stay where they were until rescuers arrived early the next morning, according to the news release.

A helicopter picked up two hoist-rescue technicians from Mountain Rescue Aspen at about 6 a.m. Wednesday and flew toward the peak, sheriff’s officials said.

Lightning in the area and early morning snow briefly delayed the search, but the aerial team was able to find the two stranded hikers and lift them into the helicopter, according to the sheriff’s office.

The helicopter flew in from the Colorado Army National Guard High-Altitude Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, about 60 miles north of Capitol Peak.

“Capitol Peak is not a ‘walk up’ peak, it is a technical climb,” sheriff’s officials stated in the release. “Climbers need to carry proper gear, which includes food, water, a helmet, a communication device and bright-colored, warm clothing. Climbers should be prepared for changing weather conditions.”

The iconic 6-mile roundtrip hike is in a red-ribboned rock formation in the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness (which are actually in Arizona, near the Utah border). But because of its delicate nature, would-be visitors have to enter a daily lottery to get a permit, helping limit the number of people tramping over the sandstone. The in-person lottery has since been replaced by a daily online lottery that is monitored by a “mobile geofence system,” meaning you have to be nearby to fill it out. There is also an advance lottery four months out.

It wasn’t my lucky day, though, and the trip is still a goal.

The Wave may be one of the oldest (since the 1980s) and most familiar examples of land managers instituting a system to protect special places from excessive use, but it����ap not alone. Perhaps thanks in part to social media, some spots are just too popular for their own good.

Below is a list of some of the best and most famous lotteries. It’s by no means complete, and you can find more under the “permits” tag at .

UTAH/ARIZONA

The Wave in Coyote Buttes North

As mentioned above, if you want to hike the Wave, plan to spend some time in the BLM office in Kanab, Utah; that’s where you’ll go to pick up the permit and attend a safety lesson. Understand more about the process at .��If you strike out with The Wave, you can still have a pretty epic day of hiking in this area, though. We ended up at nearby White Pocket. You must have a high-clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead as it is on unimproved roads with sand drifts. Or, speak to the experts at the BLM about how to get to the trailhead or hire a local guide. Other hikes with groovy natural formations in the area include the Sand Caves and Red Canyon Slot.

Angels Landing in Zion National Park

As someone with a fear of heights, I can’t understand the appeal of Angels Landing, but lots of other people do, which is why it is so popular. This 5-mile hike includes narrow strips of rock with sheer drops on both sides. The payoffs are 360-degree views and bragging rights.

To obtain a permit, go to the , and pay a $6 non-refundable fee to enter the lottery up to seven days in advance for up to six people at a time. You will be redirected to recreation.gov, which manages all permits. If you score a permit, you’ll pay $3 per person to do the hike. Note that due to limited cell phone service, you need to print or download the permit before coming to the park. Hiking choices are limited to the next day (not the day of) or a week in advance. Getting to the trailhead requires taking a shuttle, so check the schedule or you’ll miss your time slot.

Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park

In 2006, the National Park Service switched from a waitlist to a lottery for noncommercial rafting permits on the portion of the Colorado River that snakes through the Grand Canyon. In season, about 450 permits are awarded for 12 to 25-day raft trips. Before the lottery system, the waitlist was exceeding 25 years for some boaters!

This is a “weighted lottery” where a person’s previous experience — or lack thereof — is factored in. This is not a trip for novices, so the permitting process includes meeting park service standards for the skills to raft this river.

Once you get , know that it can’t be traded, deferred, or changed. And bring your wallet — the lottery application fee is $25, a river permit costs $90 per person, and an entrance fee is $20 per person. There is also a trip deposit of $200 to $400.

Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon

The Havasupai Indian Reservation is in Havasu Canyon, which is part of the Grand Canyon. Supai Village is only accessible by foot or horseback (or mule), and no day hiking is allowed. Depending on your final destination, the village or campground, it’s an 8- to 10-mile hike down into the canyon and along the bottom. Temperatures can exceed 115 degrees in summer.

The attraction here is the icy blue waters that tumble across red rocks, including Havasu Falls. Devastating floods wrecked the area in 2024, but it has since reopened and is still a stunning locale that attracts many more requests to visit than it can handle.

Which is why there is a lottery system; and aren’t managed by the National Park Service.

If you aren’t going to set up your own camp, you can make a reservation at the lodge in Supai Village. There are detailed rules for when you can hike in and back out based on your reservation dates, along with a need to have a group leader and to bring your paperwork. Another option, which I used with success, was to go with a commercial guide who secures the permits so you don’t leave it up to chance. You will be camping with your group, and not staying in the lodge, which means carrying more gear on your hike.

For the lucky ones who score a permit for a non-commercial excursion, don’t expect to buy any supplies in Supai Village. Pack in everything you need, and pack everything back out with you.

COLORADO

Maroon Bells

The most photographed destination in Colorado, the twin peaks of the Maroon Bells, outside of Aspen attract 300,000 visitors every year, according to tourism officials in the area.

Once you’re here, there are many hiking options, from easier ones like the one-mile loop around Maroon Lake to harder trails, like the 11-mile one-way trek across 12,500-foot West Maroon Pass to Crested Butte.

Unless you are riding your bicycle here, during peak months. Reservation costs range from $10 to $20, depending on whether you’re parking your own vehicle or taking the shuttle. Note that there is a fee between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to get picked up by a friend, and all commercial ride services are not allowed for drop off or pick-up.

Much harder to get are backcountry permits for the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, which go on sale each year and allow access to the famed Conundrum Hot Springs, as well as Capitol Lake, Crater Lake and the Four Pass Loop.

Hanging Lake

Tucked inside the White River National Forest in Glenwood Canyon is Hanging Lake, a thanks to its exquisite beauty.

The trail is only a little over a mile long, but it is steep and rocky. The reward for your efforts is a waterfall pouring gently into clear, bluish-green lake. A wooden walkway hugs the side of the lake and provides a clear place to remain on land, not in the tempting cool waters.

What could be called a series of unfortunate events — overuse, wildfire, debris runoff — culminated in multiple closures of the trail in the past few years for repair and restoration. It’s now scheduled to reopen as of July 1, 2025. And reservations are required. There is a $12 per person permit cost; no dogs are allowed. .

CALIFORNIA

Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Half Dome is one of the most recognized places in Yosemite National Park for its unique shape: one sheer face and three rounded sides, making it look like a dome cut in half.

The 400-foot climb to the top is one of the more sought-after experiences in the park, so there is a seasonal permit lottery system. The fixed cables that make this climb possible are put in each spring and removed in the fall, so access is limited.

There is a preseason lottery and then the daily lottery for two days in advance with six permits per application. Only 225 hikers are permitted per day through recreation.gov. The cost is $10 for each lottery application and each award hiker pays $10 for their permit.

A climbing harness is recommended, but not provided. This is not a guided experience so each hiker is responsible for their own safety.

TENNESSEE

Synchronous fireflies in Great Smoky National Park

Surprisingly, one of the most limited and dicey lotteries is the one to view the synchronous fireflies in Great Smoky National Park during eight days in June. Everything about this is limited, and then there are no guarantees that the wildlife will perform on cue.

The lottery for a vehicle reservation opens on April 28 at 10 a.m. EDT and closes by 8 p.m. on May 1. Less than 1,000 vehicles are allowed during the entire event, predicted to peak June 4-11. There is a $1 nonrefundable application fee and a $24 registration fee if you win a permit.

For those who do get a permit, there are strict guidelines about the lighting you bring with you, such as using a red flashlight rather than a bright cell phone light.

After 35 years with the forest service, the last 15 as the man in charge of Colorado’s sprawling White River forest, Fitzwilliams took advantage of buyouts offered to federal employees last month as the Trump administration sought to cut the size of government.

He maintains he was not making a political statement, though.

“I was probably going to retire in the next year anyway,” said Fitzwilliams, 60. “I have 35 years in, and I want to do some other things. With everything going on, I thought, ‘Well, now is a good time.’”

While not politicizing his departure, he worries about the short-term future of the 3,600-square-mile forest he managed — which stretches from the Continental Divide to Glenwood Springs and beyond — as well as other national forests.

Because of its 11 ski areas, which operate on forest land with special use permits, along with 10 fourteeners and other exceptional hiking opportunities, White River is the busiest national forest in the U.S.

“When you don’t have boots on the ground — and that����ap the people we’re getting rid of, seasonal and part-time people — that concerns me,” Fitzwilliams said. “Maybe it����ap short-term, and through whatever plan is put in place, we’ll get through it, but I’m really worried about this upcoming season with so few people working in the field.

“I say that now as what will be a retired user of public lands,” the Wisconsin native added. “I want trails clear. I want bathrooms cleaned, toilets pumped. That stuff is just basic services that, right now, forests are struggling to figure out how that can get done.”

He’s also troubled because many experienced forest service lifers are taking the same exit path he did. White River’s deputy supervisor, Heather Noel, also resigned.

“People are signing up for early retirement,” Fitzwilliams said. “The amount of institutional knowledge that is about to walk out the door should worry everyone.”

Joe Lavorini, Rocky Mountain region program director for the non-profit National Forest Foundation, says Fitzwilliams was a one-of-a-kind leader who was an “amazing advocate” for public lands.

“His team admired Scott for his innovation, but also the high standard to which he held himself,” Lavorini said. “He knew what the land needed, protecting the resource, but also protecting the user experience. I really admired the balanced approach that he took to managing national forest service lands.”

Because the mandate of the forest service within the U.S Department of Agriculture is to manage its lands for “multiple use,” making decisions for White River involves mineral exploration, grazing, logging and oil and gas development. Recreation is its top priority, though. The forest attracts approximately 10 million visitors annually.

That means many of the issues Fitzwilliams worked to solve involved growing visitation pressures, such as implementing a reservation system for Hanging Lake and requiring permits for backcountry camping in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

“Anytime you talk about permitting to go camping, just to stay overnight, that����ap hard because the great part about national forests is that you’re free to roam,” Fitzwilliams said. “But the impacts were such that we had to do something. There was human feces all over the place. There was garbage all over the place. There was no solitude. Campsites were trashed. It wasn’t a wilderness experience, and we weren’t meeting the intent of the (federal) wilderness act.”

Parking reservations at the Quandary Peak trailhead, managed by Summit County, were another innovation to address increasing visitation during Fitzwilliams’ tenure. Yet another was summer closures of the parking area at the Booth Creek trailhead near Vail, where hikers access the popular trail via shuttles from Vail parking structures.

Massive challenges came from the Grizzly Creek wildfire in 2020, which was followed by flooding and debris flows a year later which severely damaged the iconic Hanging Lake trail in Glenwood Canyon. White River collaborated with Great Outdoors Colorado, the National Forest Foundation and others to fund trail reconstruction that the forest otherwise would not have been able to afford.

“I don’t have the exact numbers, but let’s just say it was a $4.5-million remake, and less than a million was taxpayer money,” Fitzwilliams said. “Shared stewardship — that’s people coming together and solving a problem. It’s an example of the work we were able to do, and that’s what I’ll miss most.”

Lavorini admired the way Fitzwilliams brought those stakeholders together to rebuild the trail better than it was before. The project is expected to be finished this summer.

“He recognized we were going to need to bring in other partners in order to raise the funds and give Hanging Lake the care and attention it needed after the Grizzly Creek fire,” Lavorini said. “He recognized that in order to manage these lands sustainably, we need to foster stewardship and create the next generation of environmental stewards. To do that, people need to interact with their public lands. They need to be able to visit these places.”

Fitzwilliams and Gov. Jared Polis alarmed locals in Garfield and Eagle counties in 2021 after the governor announced that Sweetwater Lake would become Colorado’s 43rd state park on land owned by the forest service but managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Three and a half years later, it remains unclear whether CPW will manage the property and, if it does, whether it will be designated a state park.

Locals in Garfield and Eagle counties feared Sweetwater would be overrun by visitors. Fitzwilliams insisted that visitors from afar were going to discover Sweetwater no matter what, but concedes White River could have done a better job communicating why asking CPW to administrate it was necessary.

“That whole vision of state park, and what a state park looks like, took over a little bit,” Fitzwilliams said. “We had to backtrack, and hopefully they will be able to catch up.”

Fitzwilliams says his White River tenure was a dream job, and that he turned down promotions at the regional and national level because he enjoyed “rolling up sleeves with partners and communities, solving problems.”

Despite the current challenges facing federal land managers, Fitzwilliams calls himself an “eternal optimist,” and he notes that the national debt stands at $36 trillion.

“There’s no bigger advocate of getting rid of inefficiencies in government than I am, especially when you live it for 35 years,” he said. “But short-term, it����ap going to be a bumpy ride, and I’m a little worried about how you bounce back.”

President Donald Trump‘s administration on Friday, via a form email, across the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service. They hit federal agencies that manage the more than 24 million acres of federal public lands in Colorado that fuel the state’s economy, make outdoor recreation possible and provide habitat for countless species.

The extent of the cuts in Colorado remained unclear on Monday. At least 90 Forest Service employees based in Colorado were fired, according to Gov. Jared Polis’ office. Firefighters were spared from the cuts, but other employees who worked in wildfire prevention and forest management were fired.

“It����ap reckless endangerment to Coloradans and could increase homeowners insurance costs further for the Trump administration to take a hammer to those who help protect us against wildfires through watershed protection and forest management, tipping the scale toward more fire danger with potentially devastating consequences,” Polis said in a statement. “It����ap fine if they don’t like how the federal government works today, but risking our health and safety with no replacement is reckless.”

Federal public lands cover approximately 37,500 square miles in Colorado — about a third of the state — and are primarily managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The firings followed a decision to freeze seasonal hires across the federal government, including at the National Park Service, which relies on seasonal employees to manage crowds during peak visitation seasons.

Spokespeople for the Agriculture and Interior departments did not respond to questions from The Denver Post asking how many Colorado-based employees were fired.

“Secretary Rollins fully supports President Trump’s directive to optimize government operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s ability to better serve American farmers, ranchers, loggers and the agriculture community,” an unnamed Department of Agriculture spokesperson said Friday in an emailed statement in response to questions. “We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.”

The mass firings prompted Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation to demand the reinstatement of employees.

The Forest Service already faces critical understaffing and underfunding, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Brittany Pettersen and Jason Crow wrote .

The Forest Service in Colorado manages nine national forests and two national grasslands. The agency’s jurisdiction includes beloved and iconic places like the Indian Peaks Wilderness west of Boulder, the Maroon Bells outside Aspen as well as the land that many of the state’s ski resorts operate on.��

The agency’s staff nationwide declined 30% in the last three decades even as visitation to forests dramatically increased and wildfires became more frequent and destructive. burned on forest service land.

“These public servants not only maintain the health of our headwaters and wildlife habitat but help keep our communities safe by decreasing the risk of wildfire destroying homes and critical infrastructure,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “They put out campfires, clear trails, clean bathrooms, and manage trailheads. They also help businesses with the permitting process to use Forest Service lands, including grazers, guides, outfitters, ski resorts, and oil, gas and mining operations.”

The indiscriminate cuts risk permanent damage to Colorado’s federal public lands and threaten the rural communities that rely economically on outdoor recreation and tourism, Ridgway Mayor John Clark said in a news release.

“President Trump’s approach to public lands is a threat to our way of life in rural Colorado,” Clark said.

The firings are part of a broader effort led by the Trump-empowered billionaire businessman Elon Musk to downsize the federal government.

Layoffs are unlikely to , however. When the Congressional Budget Office looked at the issue, it found the government spent $271 billion annually compensating civilian federal workers, with about 60% of that total going to workers employed by the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

The government could, in theory, cut all those workers and still run a deficit of over $1 trillion. It would continue to grow as tax revenues are needed to keep up with the growing costs of Social Security and Medicare.

“These terminations are foolish, heartless, and do nothing to make the government more efficient,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a Colorado-based conservation advocacy group. “They will, however, endanger parks, communities, water, and wildlife across the country.

“Firing the next generation of America’s park rangers, scientists, and land managers is a recipe for literal disaster. I don’t know whether we’ll see overflowing latrines, polluted streams, or deadly wildfires first, but (Interior Secretary) Doug Burgum is already leaving a path of destruction across America’s parks and public lands.”

Staff writer Nick Coltrain and the Associated Press contributed to this story.